Category: Languages

Earlier this year I already reviewed Read Real Japanese Essays. The Fiction version has the same set-up as that book, so I won’t get into that again (check the Essays review for that). The structure of the book just works, and it’s awesome for students of Japanese, the end.

If you’re going to read books in Japanese, a pretty awesome place to start is Aozora Bunko. Aozora Bunko is basically like Project Gutenberg, but for Japanese literature. All books on Aozora Bunko are free and their copyright has expired. There are many big names available, such as Mori Ogai …

Oh, this book. OH, THIS BOOK. You see, when I read the reviews where everyone was praising this book, saying how useful and funny it was, I was slightly sceptical. Sure, I like Rubin’s translations. Sure, he knows his Japanese. But I don’t trust non-fiction/selfhelp/reference works to keep me interested. …

Among Japanese learning material aimed at foreigners, this book is definitely one of the better ones. The book contains eight essays by (relatively) popular authors, such as Haruki Murakami, Banana Yoshimoto and Yoko Ogawa.

I picked up this little book because I wanted to get back into reading Japanese. I was mostly pulled towards this particular book because they are (supposed to be) short stories by Ōgai Mori and I quite appreciate reading actual literature.